WaPo asks: Did Rand Paul plagiarize his lawsuit?

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks to reporters in front of federal court in Washington on Wednesday as he filed a complaint against the NSA’s surveillance program. (Charles Dharapak, AP)

Updated: Paul’s office says the Post story is nonsense. See below.

Sen. Rand Paul made a bit of news Wednesday, announcing that he was filing suit against President Obama and the National Security Agency to stop the controversial collection of telephone data.

But the Washington Post reported late in the day that the complaint Paul filed appears to have been lifted from a draft prepared by lawyer who is no longer part of Paul’s legal team. The lawyer, Bruce Fein, has been replaced on the complaint by former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli.

Making the story odder, Fein’s spokeswoman, who is also his ex-wife, complained to the Post that “this entire complaint was the work product, intellectual property and legal genius of Bruce Fein.”

This kind of allegation is particularly sensitive for Paul, who acknowledged last year that some of the passages of his speeches had been lifted from other writers.

Our colleague Richard Wolf notes that beyond the language, Paul’s case is not really new anyhow, because several other similar suits have already been heard in court and are on to appeals.

Update:

Doug Stafford, executive director of RandPAC, says the complaint was not stolen — Fein was paid.

“Bruce Fein was paid for work on this matter. Bruce was one of several attorneys consulted in the initial phases,” Stafford said.